CHAPEAU is, without doubt, Bankruptcy's (if not the world's) highest-level, highest-concept, highest-falutin' noise project ever. Truly, Chapeau has achieved echelons of "noise" so high as to transcend the very bounds of "noise" itself and has entered into strange, uncharted realms that might only be described as "not-noise." Perhaps it was the legendary Mike Duncan (of the legendarical
Black Mayonnaise) who described it all best when he likened Chapeau to the etymological bond between "excruciate" and the Crucifixion; in that Jesus, when he emerged from Gethsemane on the eve of his execution - or, at least according to St. Thomas in the Nag Hammadi literature, that... Well, the exact quote is somewhat shrouded in mystery. Indeed, mystery and debate still surround the issue of whether Chapeau itself is, in fact, a Black Mayo side-project, or whether it is actually a Praying Gods side-project, some extraordinary union of the two, or some fantastic amalgam of neither. And beyond even that, questions still abound as to how Rotten Piece figures into this perplexing picture. Or Roxy Music for that matter. In any event, don't expect to find the answers here in "Chained Library" - a compendium of some of Chapeau's best (although, to the
true 'Peau initiate, probably worst) recordings from 1999 through 2006. Expect only the mystery, the enigma, the puzzle and the pain - yes, the
excruciation that is Chapeau...
